This happened to me several years ago. I was an employee at a major computer company for 25 years. I was usually evaluated as a 1 or a 2 performer. I transfered, within the same company, to another site into a group of 1 performers. Since I was new to the department and had the timing misfortune of joining the department during a ‘ranking’ session, I was ranked at the bottom and ‘yanked’.
After I had recruited a team of "cream of the crop" performers who were literally acknowledged -- world wide throughout our industry -- as the leaders in establishing the much-needed next generation of products for the industry -- I was told that I must rate those "stars" on the same "curve" used for janitors.
There was no way I could live with the rule that, if I rated one "star" "exceptional", then I must fire another.
So, after a career there for nearly twenty years, I left -- and never looked back...
As many folks in Texas were wont to say, I "saw the most beautiful sight in Texas" -- that company -- in my rear-view mirror -- for the final time...
What a shame -- for a once-great company to be viewed so scornfully -- not only by its employees -- but by the surrounding community in general.
“This happened to me several years ago. I was an employee at a major computer company for 25 years. I was usually evaluated as a 1 or a 2 performer. I transfered, within the same company, to another site into a group of 1 performers. Since I was new to the department and had the timing misfortune of joining the department during a ‘ranking’ session, I was ranked at the bottom and ‘yanked’.”
I saw that happen in my organization while I was a manager. While ranking employees in other organizations if no one knew who you were you got a poor rating. Luckily I was able to get out of management and back to the bench after a few years.